


Their Starved Lips

by DarkSideEmissary



Category: Coraline (2009)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 01:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13559565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSideEmissary/pseuds/DarkSideEmissary
Summary: “I knew you’d be back, dear,” the Beldam sneered. “A daughter always returns to her Mother in the end.”The monster looked less human than ever. The cracks in the porcelain spread further and deeper and the needles-fingers were sharp and gleaming. The shape of the body was all spider with a little bit of mantis, it no longer even slightly resembled any human woman.~In which there are unforeseen consequences to Coraline's victory.





	Their Starved Lips

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats.

“I knew you’d be back, dear,” the Beldam sneered. “A daughter always returns to her Mother in the end.”

The monster looked less human than ever. The cracks in the porcelain spread further and deeper and the needles-fingers were sharp and gleaming. The shape of the body was all spider with a little bit of mantis, it no longer even slightly resembled any human woman. 

“You’re not my mother,” snapped Coraline, chin tilted up, defiant. “I’ve come here to kill you.”

The Beldam laughed, a weak and rasping and scornful sound. “You already killed me, you ungrateful child, my selfish little daughter.”

Coraline frowned. She wanted to disagree again, but she knew that it would do no good and anyway, she was a great deal more patient than she used to be. Waiting and careful observation were the most important steps in any game worth playing, she knew this now.

She examined the monster more closely, paying special attention to the frequency of the cracks and the way entire pieces appeared to be missing. Even as she watched, another little portion crumbled into so much white dust that drifted away into the white expanse that lay beyond the creature’s web.

The Beldam really was dying, Coraline realised. It wasn’t a trick. The Beldam was so weak that she couldn’t move even when food wandered right back into her web, lured here by…

Well. Coraline drank in the sight, this creature of her nightmares laid low, and she smiled.

(She did not realise this, but it very much resembled the smile of the Beldam when she had thought that Coraline had lost the game of finding things.)

“You won, Coraline,” said the Beldam, with something like pride and something like bitterness. “You won _everything_.”

Coraline flinched. She hated the sound of her name spoken out loud, had hated it ever since she had escaped the Beldam. It was funny, she used to like her name. She used to hate it when people called her “Caroline” just because it was what they expected to hear and they were too stupid to notice what a perfectly good and interesting name she had. It was funny, wasn’t it, how suddenly she became grateful for the near-constant mistake.

She had introduced herself as “Caroline” at her new school. It was better that way, because she never had to hear the terrible sound that her true name had become. It felt like, like…

“What do you mean?” she said, and she might have sounded more subdued than she had only a minute earlier. “How could I win _everything_?”

The Beldam hummed. The white, angular remains of her lips twisted into a sly and mocking smile.

Coraline’s eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. “Fine,” she snapped. “Don’t answer. I don’t care. I’ll leave and I won’t come back and you’ll never see me again.”

“You shouldn’t lie to your Mother, dear. It’s unbecoming.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Oh, Coraline. My children always come back to me, always. You ate my food, that means you’re mine forever. Haven’t you been starving, my poor little daughter? Haven’t you missed my cooking? You’ll never be satisfied by any of the disgusting slop they give you in _that_ world.”

Coraline drew in a sharp breath, and not only because of the sound of her name. It was true, what the Beldam said. It didn’t matter what or how much she ate, all of it turned to ash in her mouth and left her starving. However…

“No, that’s not it,” and there was wonder in her voice, the wonder of epiphany, “I don’t miss your cooking. It wouldn’t satisfy me either.”

Again the Beldam hummed, that self-satisfied noise. “Is that so? What would satisfy you then, daughter?”

The answer to that was simple, it was…

No.

Coraline shrugged. “I don’t know.”

There was something wrong with the food, that was all. There was nothing wrong with her. 

Nothing.

She trembled all over and she knew that she couldn’t lie to herself any longer, not here in the Beldam’s web, the Beldam’s world. She had come here because she was restless and she was hungry and there was something horribly, terribly wrong with her. The world she came from was all wrong for her and she needed…

“What did you do?” she whispered, and then she screamed, _“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!”_

Her fingers curled like claws and she launched herself at the creature before it had a chance to reply. Her mouth opened wide, screaming, screaming, and then she was grasping the creature, the Beldam, Mother. Coraline bit down.

Mother screamed, but it died to a whimper as Coraline bit deeper, chewed, swallowed. 

It did not taste like ash. It tasted good. Coraline hummed relief and satisfaction as she settled in for the feast. At last, at last that awful hunger was starting to subside.

Sewing needles (fingers no more) came loose in her hand. She held them close, like the precious tools of creation that they were.

For the first time in far too long, she felt deep down inside that she would be alright.

All was well in her world.

If it wasn’t, well, she would _make_ it so.


End file.
